Newcastle United travel to Felix Magath’s relegation-threatened Fulham this weekend, hoping to continue their fine run of form away from St James’ Park.
The Toon have been very happy travelers this season, and have picked up more points and more goals in league matches away from the North East.
In fact, the Magpies have won more away matches than two of this season’s title chasing teams (Liverpool and Manchester City) and are level with table topping Chelsea.
The club picked up just two wins on the road in the whole of last season, and only one by this point, as they narrowly avoided the drop. This season the club had surpassed 2012-2013’s figures by the beginning of October in Cardiff.
Newcastle have even won two more away games so far in 2013-2014 than in the Champions’ League chasing season of 2011-2012 when we finished fifth.
For certain, the tightening up of the rear guard away from St James’ Park has had a huge impact on results, with just 20 goals conceded so far this season compared to 29 at this stage last year.
The much improved Mike Williamson must surely take some of the credit for this and can not be far from England manager Roy Hodgson’s thinking for Brazil.
With no defensive reinforcements made over the last two transfer windows, I think Alan Pardew probably deserves a pat on the back for that too and for, on a rare occasion, getting the best from a player.
Comparing this year to last, the club have actually found the net a similar amount of times on their travels, 19 goals in this much improved season as opposed to 17 at the same point in 2013
